nns91

My senior year is starting in 5 days! It's another round of application. Good luck everyone! We will get each other's back throughout this journey. Undergrad Institution: Top 40 liberal arts school Major(s): Biology Minor(s): Philosophy GPA in Major: 3.86 Overall GPA: 3.72 Position in Class: Top 13% percent Type of Student: Asian male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 162 V: 157 W: 4.0 B: Research Experience: -1.5 years at current lab, studying speciation in drosophila -1 summer intern at Institute of Biotechnology in home country -1 summer at Penn State College of Medicine -1 poster presentation, 1 oral presentation Awards/Honors/Recognitions: -2 summer fellowships from home college -1 summer fellowship from Penn State College of Medicine -Dean's List Pertinent Activities or Jobs: -Student tutor for Bio Department Special Bonus Points: -LoR should be strong since I am one of the first students of current research advisor and have been heavily involved in the lab. Second LoR is from former chair of a top 10 school and he was happy with the results that I produced during my internship. -Hoping to push for a paper before applications (should be co-author) but it's tough since we are doing a new system. I am literally doing everything I can to finish this. Will paper in preparation count???? Applying to Where: Immunology or molecular bio programs Princeton (Molecular bio) Penn (IGG) Columbia Weil Cornell (IMP) Harvard Rockefeller UChicago Cornell Pitt UMass Medical School Stony Brook (Molecular genetics) Mount Sinai Penn State Hershey Brown (Pathobio) Tufts Any suggestion or comment would be helpful!

Just got my official score, is 4.0 on AW a decent score or too low?

Yeah, that's what I thought because when I did manhattan test, I got more questions wrong than the number of points taken off. It must have been something about my particular test that tripped me up that I did not score as high as I did on manhattan.

Thank you mrmolecularbiology! I will take a look at UT Southwestern. Anyway, I took my GRE on Saturday and scored Q:162 and V:157. You think this adequate to apply to some of the most competitive programs?

Yeah, I am not a native English speaker. For my field, at UPenn (one of my top choices as well as a highly competitive school that posts stats), the average for maths is 83.5% and for verbal is somewhere around 85%. Since it's a science major, I think they are weighing more toward the math part, which I am at least around the average. What do you think?

You mean the reverse for percentile?

So you guys thin that these scores will still put me in a competitive position (given other components are good) at some of the most competitive programs?

So I just took GRE on Saturday, scoring Q:162 and V:157. I guess this is a not too low score. However, this is neither high nor low, I am trying to get opinions on whether it is worth it to retake? I am applying to some of the most competitive molecular biology/immunology programs as an international student so I do not know whether these scores are adequate to put me in a competitive positions. From some programs that I have looked at like Penn (Q was 83.5% on average for admitted students). I am trying to weigh between $185+time+two or three points increase (I have scored higher than 162 before in Q) versus spending time on my personal statement and other aspects of my application that are "more critical." Thank you everyone!

Just got out of the exam! Scrored 162 on quantitative and 157 on verbal. Should I think about a retake? I am applying for immunology programs

Btw, is there a rough idea of many questions I can miss and still be in mid 160s for quantitative section? Because of the whole adaptive nature of GRE, it's hard to have a sense from practice tests.

By saying "I think for you a 160V or higher is already good enough to be honest" did you really mean verbal or you actually meant quantitative? Do you know anything about the difficulty of Manhattan questions compared to real GRE test? Or if not, was there a noticeable discrepancy between the real GRE and those practice tests that you took?

Also, if you guys have any tip on the logic-based reading questions in the verbal section, it would be great too since I seem to miss those questions as well!

I am taking the GRE in a week and have been doing my study using the Manhattan sets (all the single books as well as the 5lbs practice and vocab flashcards). I am in the ball park for wanted quantitative score (currently at 89%-90%) and quite close for verbal (currently at around 75%). Ideally, I want to score around 166-167 for quantitative and 160 for verbal. Do you guys think that this is a realistic aim given my current scores? Are Manhattan practice tests harder than the real GRE (reason is I have been doing the 7 quantitative research study sections and I have been getting 17-18 on average)? I have seen a lot of posts on good percentile for engineering programs. However, on Magoosh, for bio programs, I saw many top schools have higher verbal average (162-164) than quantitative average( around 161). Is this true? Does it mean that I will really need to bring up my verbal, even though I am an international student? I usually get trapped on the multiple answers questions on passage readings. Any tip on that ? For math, I also usually get tripped on the comparison questions where I have to compare 2 variables based on some sort of general number properties. Any tip on this as well ?

I think I have a general idea about what I want to do. However, I am not too sure about specific. For example, I know that my interest lies within immune response against viral infection. You think that might be a decent "general idea" about waht I want to do? But I guess your point earlier was keep my options open while still having a specific target ?

Thanks a lot for your detail answer !!!! The reason I was wondering was because the other day, I went to talk to my micro/immunology professor about grad school stuff. He told me to narrow down my interest before we could pick out schools. He was like, you should know whether you are interested in host defense against bacteria or virus or T cell regulation or B cell regulation or Cancer immunology so on and so forth. Honestly, it is so hard for me to narrow down now. I might have a much better idea when I get to the school and do a few rotations. I know that I prefer host defense against viral infection but I also like T-cell regulation, B-cell regulation, innate, adaptive.... Though I don't plan to go into cancer immunology or transplantation immunology. I still want to learn about those things. I have a long list now of schools (about 18) that I am interested in. I have searched the websites for professors' research interest. One thing I don't know about is how active is their research and how much grant they have? How do I judge these things? In general, how do I know whether a school has active research and a good amount of grant?

So I am trying to specifically narrow down my school list now !!!! I have this one big problem. I know for sure I am interested into microbiology/immunology (slightly more with immunology). However, I don't know how to narrow down my specific interest in the specific field. For example, I find that I am interested in way too many different subfields within immunology (pretty much all of them). I know that I am not a big fan of transplantation immunology. Other than that, I like pretty much anything else: innate immunity, adaptive immunity, immune response to infection (esp viral infection). With these broad ranges of interest, what can I do to narrow down to search specifically for schools? Do you guys have any tip?

We would get each other's back then !!!!!

I second this !!!! It's kinda scary that I am now a member of these "Applicant Profiles and Results" threads. I still remember looking at these threads every year as a underclassmen. Now it's my turn ???? AHHHHH!!!! Oh well, however stressful it might be, it will be a great journey !!! Let it begin

Oh definitely, I am looking for research fit, not just the name. I am just worrying about what if I am interested in research that are going on at those "top" schools? I am quite confident with my primary letter of rec since it will be from my research professor. He knows me really well as I am one of his first students. I will definitely work hard on my personal statement to make sure that it stands out. Thanks a lot for your infor though. I really appreciate it!!!!!

Do you have a vague idea of what is an excellent GRE and GPA ? I am just trying to see if I can think about those top schools.

Thanks a lot for your comment! I actually went to high school in Rochester and did a rotation in the Bio department at University of Rochester when I was a senior in high school. Therefore, I will definitely put UofR on my list. So I guess with the "excellent" GPA criteria, I am not so qualified at those top schools?

Before applying, I will have almost 2 years of research experience. I hope to get strong letter from my current research advisor, my academic advisor who knows me on a personal basis, and my upcoming summer advisor. I am working the hardest possible to publish a paper soon (We are finishing up this paper and plan to write it later this summer). I am working in a brand new lab with a new system (have not really been touched for the past 50 years or so) and we have a small lab ( my prof just came to my school last year and I am the only person that has been with him since day one). I don't know if this will make any difference. So I guess my GPA is too low? Right now it is at 3.7. Hopefully, I can pull it to a 3.72 before I apply. So what do you think is a mark for somewhat "decent" gpa? I am definitely looking into IDP programs. I guess I am just unsure which range of schools should I apply to? Should I just not worry about very good schools as I will stand no chance and focus on mid-ranked schools?

I am currently attending an undergraduate institute in the US. I have had experience working in 2 different labs(one I am working in right now and one I worked for a month in high school at a pretty well regarded research university) and will be doing a summer program at a bigger university this summer. I am doing my best to finish lab work for this one paper that will go out probably in either September or October (probably 2nd author). Does it change anything ?

So I have decided to do some research on programs and have found around 20 programs that I am interested in. For some programs, such as Penn, they have Microbiology in the CAMB while Immunology is by itself. What should I do in those cases ? I know I am interested in both fields, maybe a bit toward immunology so should I apply to the Immunology program and then look for people who are doing microbiology in the program? Here is my list so far. Could you guys provide me some comment? I know I should not let my credentials prevent me from applying to schools that I like but I acknowledge the fact that I need to pass a threshold before I can think about applying to those top schools. Harvard Yale Princeton Rockefeller Weil Cornell Cornell Chicago University of Washington Penn: Columbia Mount Sinai Dartmouth Brown NYU Sackler Stony Brook Mayo Clinic Tufts University of Rochester University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Thanks alot guys !!!! Also I have been having this concern for a long time. I did not do well in organic chem (just had a bad term). I do not really plan to go into strict orgo/chemical biology research. Therefore do you guys think having a bad grade in orgo I weakens my application a lot ? I am planning to take biochem next fall.